"Where the hell did you park that thing?"
"First of all, it’s not a thing it’s a motorcycle. A Harley Davidson, to be exact.”
"Whatever you say, Steve," Bucky answered, rolling his eyes. As much as he liked motorbikes, he didn’t like Steve riding one. Sure, he never went over the speed limit and he knew what he was doing but Bucky would rather have him drive a car. Whenever he tried to reason with him, though, Steve had the ultimate argument: What am I gonna do with a car in New York? Be safe, Bucky thought but kept his mouth shut.
"And second of all," he continued, rounding a corner and pointing down the street, "it’s right there."
"I see nothing," Bucky replied with a huff. They’d been walking for almost fifteen minutes now to get to Steve’s bike and the heat was killing him.
"What, getting tired already?" Steve smirked at him. "Come on, it’s just two more blocks."
Bucky sighed and trotted along, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt. An excited squeal behind him made him stop in his tracks and turn around. A young, blonde girl in a blue dress was staring at them both with her mouth and eyes wide open. The girl’s mother, busy fumbling for her cell phone, walked past them.
"Mom!" the girl shouted excitedly. "Mom, look!" - "Honey, we don’t have time to look at another dog, we gotta get going!" - "No, mom, look! It’s them!”
Bucky looked at Steve with a puzzled expression but Steve just went down on one knee and held out his hand. ”Hi, my name’s Steve. What’s yours?”
The girl giggled happily and shook his hand with a huge smile on her face, showing off her tooth gap. “Emily.”
"Nice to meet you, Emily. That’s Bucky," Steve said, pointing over his shoulder at where he stood. The girl nodded enthusiastically. "I know!" she exclaimed happily. "You’re the heroes! But," she frowned, "you’re not wearing your uniforms."
"Well, to be honest, I actually-"
Steve didn’t let him finish that sentence. “You got us,” he answered, winking at the little girl. “That’s because we’re undercover, so don’t tell the others!”
"I won’t," she whispered, locking her mouth with an imaginary key and grinning at both of them with such happiness that Bucky couldn’t help but smile back as she ran past them to her mother.
"Well, that was nice," he said, sounding surprised. Bucky was used to getting weird looks on the street and people shouting threats at him. This was new.
"She’s right though," Steve stood up and put a hand on his shoulder, turning him around and walking down the street again. "You’re a hero, too."
"But I- Oh!"
The girl had turned around to run back to them and was now right in front of Bucky. "Um … hey."
"I forgot to say!" she said, pointing at Bucky’s left arm, "That’s so cool!”
→ for bones
